Well, well, well... who's been a busy bee then? No prizes for guessing who?!
It's been a few weeks since I've updated this blog and since this is also supposed to be a 'digital reflective artefact' to represent the major themes or key concepts that I have reflected on during this term, I guess I'd better update it with those thoughts.
The first assignment 1 has come and gone and I'm very happy to have survived that one! Now onto assignment 2 which is due in less than 2 weeks! I'm ashamed to say that I didn't participate in the online debate which has been going on for the last few weeks and seems to be finished now. Not only did I miss contributing to the opening statement but I also missed the closing statement as well. Reasons will be discussed in assignment 2 - oh well, c'est la vie...
Sometimes I wonder why I keep this blog going since I don't seem to have any visitors (that I'm aware of anyway) but I am reminded of the reason why in the article “Educational Blogging” by Stephen Downes which has a quote from educational blogging guru, Will Richardson, describing blogging as “great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking, writing skills and information literacy among other things”. But hopefully, I won’t have “committed the ultimate blogging sin of losing interest in myself”. I can certainly see the educational value of blogs which is basically "writing down what you think when you read others” and "about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read-reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting.” (Downes, S 2004)
So what have I read recently? The article by Komoski PK & Plotnick, E (2000) pinpointed what most educators (I know) think of English Language software, which is essentially "drill and practice electronic worksheets". Sad but true! Perhaps a reason why these types of software are popular is they are "the easiest to install and maintain" and "require little from regular teachers" (McKenzie, J 1998). It was interesting to note that "software selection should be taken as seriously as the selection of text books" but I just wonder how many people/schools/universities actually follow all the steps listed, especially the final one which is getting feedback from users after the software has been purchased.
Another article of note was the one by McKenzie, J (1998) which really highlighted many of the problems that we, as educators, encounter when trying to incorporate ICT/IT into our teaching/curriculum. The reference to "keeping up with the Joneses" struck a chord with me as I remember when we were given a start-up grant by a local company to equip our Multimedia Centre. Had I read this article before receiving the grant, we would have been in a better position to evaluate all the major factors such as "quality vs quantity, hardware vs human infrastructure, short term vs long term", etc. Now we are in a position where our computers will be outmoded in a couple of years time...
Anyway, better trundle off but before I do, I'll just paste below my last few activities. Enjoy!
Michael
References
1. Komoski PK & Plotnick, E 2000, Seven Steps to Responsible Software Selection
2. McKenzie, J 1998, ‘Networking schools: managing quandaries, dilemmas and conundrums’
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Activity 2.5 - Educational Software
Hi all
I wish I could follow Randy’s example and post some unique and less known software that I use for English Language teaching but I can’t and I don’t know of much. If anyone knows of any, I’d be happy to hear about it!
Word processing - Student and teacher - Probably the most used software by teachers for preparing handouts/worksheets for students, writing reports, etc. Students use it for homework, letters, reports, etc.
English Language - Student - Used in the Multimedia Centre by students to practice their English outside classroom hours. Some examples of skills and software used are: Grammar – Tensebuster, Reward, etc. Writing - Business Letter Writer, Letters, faxes and e-mails, etc. Pronunciation – Connected Speech, Pronunciation Power, etc.
Presentation - Student and teacher - Teachers and students use it as a tool in giving presentations. Students use it to tell/build a story by inserting images (as well as text of course!) and I like the sound of Microsoft Photo Story (mentioned above)…
Web authoring - Teacher - Teachers use software such as “Hot Potatoes” to create online exercises (gap-fills, crosswords, cloze tests, etc.) Create online courses but the potential for this should be explored further.
It's been a few weeks since I've updated this blog and since this is also supposed to be a 'digital reflective artefact' to represent the major themes or key concepts that I have reflected on during this term, I guess I'd better update it with those thoughts.
The first assignment 1 has come and gone and I'm very happy to have survived that one! Now onto assignment 2 which is due in less than 2 weeks! I'm ashamed to say that I didn't participate in the online debate which has been going on for the last few weeks and seems to be finished now. Not only did I miss contributing to the opening statement but I also missed the closing statement as well. Reasons will be discussed in assignment 2 - oh well, c'est la vie...
Sometimes I wonder why I keep this blog going since I don't seem to have any visitors (that I'm aware of anyway) but I am reminded of the reason why in the article “Educational Blogging” by Stephen Downes which has a quote from educational blogging guru, Will Richardson, describing blogging as “great value in terms of developing all sorts of critical thinking, writing skills and information literacy among other things”. But hopefully, I won’t have “committed the ultimate blogging sin of losing interest in myself”. I can certainly see the educational value of blogs which is basically "writing down what you think when you read others” and "about reading what is of interest to you: your culture, your community, your ideas. And it is about engaging with the content and with the authors of what you have read-reflecting, criticizing, questioning, reacting.” (Downes, S 2004)
So what have I read recently? The article by Komoski PK & Plotnick, E (2000) pinpointed what most educators (I know) think of English Language software, which is essentially "drill and practice electronic worksheets". Sad but true! Perhaps a reason why these types of software are popular is they are "the easiest to install and maintain" and "require little from regular teachers" (McKenzie, J 1998). It was interesting to note that "software selection should be taken as seriously as the selection of text books" but I just wonder how many people/schools/universities actually follow all the steps listed, especially the final one which is getting feedback from users after the software has been purchased.
Another article of note was the one by McKenzie, J (1998) which really highlighted many of the problems that we, as educators, encounter when trying to incorporate ICT/IT into our teaching/curriculum. The reference to "keeping up with the Joneses" struck a chord with me as I remember when we were given a start-up grant by a local company to equip our Multimedia Centre. Had I read this article before receiving the grant, we would have been in a better position to evaluate all the major factors such as "quality vs quantity, hardware vs human infrastructure, short term vs long term", etc. Now we are in a position where our computers will be outmoded in a couple of years time...
Anyway, better trundle off but before I do, I'll just paste below my last few activities. Enjoy!
Michael
References
1. Komoski PK & Plotnick, E 2000, Seven Steps to Responsible Software Selection
2. McKenzie, J 1998, ‘Networking schools: managing quandaries, dilemmas and conundrums’
*****************************************
Activity 2.5 - Educational Software
Hi all
I wish I could follow Randy’s example and post some unique and less known software that I use for English Language teaching but I can’t and I don’t know of much. If anyone knows of any, I’d be happy to hear about it!
Word processing - Student and teacher - Probably the most used software by teachers for preparing handouts/worksheets for students, writing reports, etc. Students use it for homework, letters, reports, etc.
English Language - Student - Used in the Multimedia Centre by students to practice their English outside classroom hours. Some examples of skills and software used are: Grammar – Tensebuster, Reward, etc. Writing - Business Letter Writer, Letters, faxes and e-mails, etc. Pronunciation – Connected Speech, Pronunciation Power, etc.
Presentation - Student and teacher - Teachers and students use it as a tool in giving presentations. Students use it to tell/build a story by inserting images (as well as text of course!) and I like the sound of Microsoft Photo Story (mentioned above)…
Web authoring - Teacher - Teachers use software such as “Hot Potatoes” to create online exercises (gap-fills, crosswords, cloze tests, etc.) Create online courses but the potential for this should be explored further.
Spreadsheet - Teacher - Used mainly as an admin tool for class registers, recording grades, etc.
Michael
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Activity 2.7 - Spreadsheets
Hi all
Personally, I don’t use spreadsheets much these days (since majoring in Mathematics at uni) when teaching English and see it as mainly a Maths tool. Administratively, it’s essential with numerous examples mentioned in previous posts!
I found this really useful website about Excel usage:
http://www.internet4classrooms.com/on-line_excel.htm
Michael
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Activity 2.8 - Databases
Hi all
As with Excel, I see it more as an administrative tool and don’t use databases much in teaching. Frankly speaking, I don’t know even know how to create a database but will attempt to do so to see if there are any uses I could find!
I have tried on a couple of occasions to ‘check out’ MS Access but like a few people said on this forum, I find it totally inaccessible (pardon the pun!) Then again, I don’t think I would have any real uses for databases, except for my own personal use? I could put a list of all my CDs and DVDs in a database ‘cause it’s grown to the point when I go shopping that I forget whether I have that particular CD or DVD! Then again, I could use a spreadsheet for this…
Naturally, databases are used extensively in the business world and I agree with Petrea when she says that you don’t need to understand the inner workings of a car in order to drive it. As long as the interface is user-friendly enough and people can use one, is it that important to know how to create one? Nowadays, I can create webpages and even my own blog - http://medtech-ml.blogspot.com/ (umpteenth shameless plug!) without any prior programming knowledge.
Here’s a website which will help me to master Access but I usually use the “Help” function or ask a friend/colleague to teach/show me – I find the latter method the most effective…
http://www.functionx.com/access/
Michael
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Activity 3.2 - Software on my computer
Hi all
All the software installed on my Dell laptop is fully licenced and paid for, but not by me! Fortunately for me, the laptop is from work and came fully installed with the university's range of software (Microsoft, Adobe, Novell, etc.)
I've installed a couple of shareware/freeware programs such as "Spybot - Search & Destroy" and "SpywareBlaster" as I contracted a really nasty zlob trojan a while back. It took me ages to get rid of it but thanks to the wonder of the internet and various forums, I found the solution and was able to manually remove it. If you're willing to look hard enough, you can pretty much get anything from the internet for free but some people do come from the school of thought, "you pay for what you get".
It hasn't always been the case that I have been able to get free software. In the past, I used to buy Microsoft Office (educational discount of course) as well as the upgrades and anti-virus software for my desktop. I figured that these were essential pieces of software and it was worth getting the original one simply for the customer service/support and piece of mind. All other software was illegally copied/pirated, as most places in Asia is pirate heaven (welcome Captain Jack Sparrow), but it got to the point where I had installed so much it slowed the computer down to a snail’s pace. I realised after a while there's only so much software you really need so wiped the slate clean and re-installed Windows.
Michael
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Activity 3.3 - Comparing two computers
Hi all
In general, clones can be up to 50% cheaper than a comparative 'name brand' computer in Hong Kong.
There are quite a few computer shopping malls selling clones in HK (situated in areas such as Mong Kok, Sham Shui Po, Wan Chai, etc.) and going into these centres can be daunting as they have loads of leaflets/flyers with any combination of computer specifications. You really need to know what you want in terms of brand, performance and components as any permutation and combination seems possible in these places!
I compared a HP Pavilion a5000 PC series with a similar clone. Prices for the HP started from HK$7,999 (AU$1,250) and a similar clone from HK$4,000 (AU$625) depending on the different component brands chosen.
http://h10010.www1.hp.com/wwpc/hk/en/ho/WF25a/1090261-1111625-1116609-1116609-1116609-13039350.html
Name brands with identical configurations are more expensive due to issues such as warranty, quality of product, design, fully tested system configuration, customization of software, support, etc.
Michael
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